More: Artist's Statement
Artist Statement
My work is rooted in the genre of still life, yet reimagined through a lens of personal memory, consumer culture, and the interplay between nature and artifice. I am deeply interested in how everyday objects—particularly those that are mass-produced or kitschy—can become imbued and associated with meaning, memory, and emotion. The format of still life provides the perfect framework for this inquiry, allowing me to explore the tension between the artificial and the real, the personal and the universal.
My process begins with collecting. I gather a variety of objects from $.99 stores—plastic fruit, glittery princess crowns, cans of soda, and other disposable things that speak to the aesthetics of consumer culture. I also photograph places that hold personal significance: suburban New Jersey where I grew up, the shifting landscape of New York City, and various sites from my travels. These photos are then cut, collaged, and recombined into photo-based compositions on canvas. I use gouache and acrylic paint to create vibrant, often psychedelic environments where color and contrast play a central role.
While growing up in the suburban New Jersey of the 1970s, I was steeped in mall culture, junk food, and pop/alt music—from punk to funk and rock. These influences continue to shape my visual language. I am drawn to the aesthetics of excess and artificiality—where sweetness can be saccharine (literally) and beauty can be plastic.
One ongoing series, Still Life with a View, centers on the motif of a window. The window operates both compositionally and metaphorically: it frames a view into imagined or remembered places, as well as into my internal landscape. Within each pictorial frame, I arrange objects like real and fake fruit, soda cans, and symbolic artifacts—creating imagery about consumption, memory, and desire.
Another project explores plastic fruit bowls, combining both real and fake produce in playful compositions. These works emphasize my ongoing experimentation with color and form, and embrace a psychedelic sensibility—where optical vibrancy and surreal juxtapositions challenge our assumptions of what is natural and what is artifice.
A third project, Baby I’m Your Man (Dedicated to George Michael), is a series of diptychs that isolate singular objects within each panel, creating a rhythm of repetition and variation. This series is a tribute to the late George Michael, with each work titled after snippets of his lyrics. These pieces are a tribute to the brilliance of George Michael, to loss, and personal longing— revealing a sense of intimacy and reflection.
My earliest inspiration came from a childhood family trip to the Museum of Modern Art in the late 1960s. I vividly recall seeing a Pop Art retrospective of Claes Oldenburg. My parents pointed out soft sculptures of french fries and cake. I was so inspired! I remember returning home and painted a picture of a piece of cake with a strawberry on top—instinctively understanding that even the most mundane, sugary objects could be elevated into art. That moment has stayed with me, and it continues to inform my belief that everything—no matter how ordinary or synthetic—can be considered art.
Through collage, paint, and collected imagery, I build worlds that blur the line between memory and fantasy, sincerity and satire. My work is ultimately about seeing: what we choose to look at, what we discard, and what we remember.
Bio
Ms. Eder received her B.F.A. In Painting and Printmaking from the Parsons School of Design where she studied with Sean Scully and a M.F.A. In Combined Media from Hunter College where she studied with Robert Morris. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally in such places as the Bronx Museum, the Aperture Foundation, Every Woman Biennial, Humble Arts, The Davis/Orton Gallery, the Griffin Museum of Photography, University of Connecticut, Broadway Windows (New York University), Bedford Gallery and in Berlin, London, Rome and Korea. She was an artist-in-residence at the Henry Street Settlement, the Saltonstall Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts with renowned photographer Graciela Iturbide, in Brasil on the Island of Ilhabela, at the Art Center in Padula, Italy and recently, at the CICA Museum in South Korea. Her work has been reviewed by the New York Times, Feature Shoot, the Huffington Post, the Collector Daily, VICE and others. She has participated in the Satellite Art Show during Art Basel Miami and Art Fort Lauderdale. She lives and works in New York City. She is also an instructor of Critical Thinking for the City University of New York at the Borough of Manhattan Community College.